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Choosing a food preservation technique based on your kitchen equipment

I recently designed and released a new course called Resilience and Community Care through Food Preserving, based on my previous work teaching these concepts in person. I get asked to teach about this particular subject quite often, but as schedules, locations, etc. don’t always align, the new class is a way for me to get a ready-to-go version in the hands of people who need it.

One of the elements I added to the class last-minute was the chart below, inspired by many of the conversations I’ve had over the years where people want to know what food preserving techniques work best with the technology and infrastructure they have access to.

If you live off grid, an electric dehydrator uses valuable juice from your generator, but a solar dehydrator (provided you’re in the right climate for one) might be a better solution. Fermentation, not surprisingly, works in any kitchen setup, provided that it’s not blisteringly hot or ice cold. But many other techniques (like canning) do require some sort of technology (at bare minimum a heat source: And canning over a wood fire is hard because you have to keep the pot consistently boiling without all the water boiling off. But, it can be done if you’re feeling experimental!)